国家地理 融化的北极正使一场新的冷战升温(14)

On our last evening in camp, well after the sun had set, a small group of young Inuit roared in on snowmobiles. The rangers¹ greeted them, cigarettes began to glow. It was cold but not that cold. The men had been hunting caribou² somewhere in the west, without luck.

在我们住帐篷的最后一夜，太阳落山后，一小群年轻的因纽特人骑着雪地车赶来。士兵们跟他们打了招呼，他们点燃香烟，天气很冷但还没到受不了的程度。这些人本来在西部的某个地方打猎，但运气不太好。

Suddenly one of the newcomers stumbled into the crowd. He was upset and told of a young man who had been riding in the sled he was towing. The passenger had disappeared. He must have fallen off somewhere out on the tundra³. Marvin and other rangers asked for more details, but the young man could only shrug⁴ and point. Here was the sort of search-and-rescue mission the rangers had trained for. But before Atqittuq could organize it, a pair of rangers suited up and throttled⁵ off.

突然他们中某个人冲进人群。他很着急的说之前有个坐在他雪橇上的人不见了。他肯定是在冰原的某个地方摔下来了。马尔文和其他人想问更多的细节，但这个年轻人只说不知道。于是士兵们经常执行的搜索救援任务就派上用场了。但就在阿提库组织之前，几个士兵已经收拾好出发了。

We watched their headlights streak⁶ into the darkness, grow fainter, vanish. Then most of us wandered back to our tents to wait and listen for the whine⁷ of returning machines. We made tea. Marvin seemed concerned but not overly so; the missing Inuit had been raised in the Arctic and knew what to do if he found himself alone on the ice. I thought of the bears spotted⁸ a couple of days before and tried to imagine what the young man was doing out there. Maybe he was singing hymns⁹.

我们看着他们的头灯走进黑暗里，变得微弱，消失。然后大部分人都走回帐篷里等待，等着回来的引擎的嗡嗡声。我们煮了茶。马尔文看起来很担心他们的状况，但并不十分焦急；那个失踪的因纽特人是在北极长大的，他知道自己落单后应该怎样做。我想起了几天前看见的熊，试着想象他此刻在干什么。也许他在唱颂歌。

1 rangers   

护林者( ranger的名词复数 )； 突击队员

参考例句：

• Do you know where the Rangers Stadium is? 你知道Rangers体育场在哪吗？ 来自超越目标英语 第3册
• Now I'm a Rangers' fan, so I like to be near the stadium. 现在我是Rangers的爱好者，所以我想离体育场近一点。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

2 caribou   

n.北美驯鹿

参考例句：

• Afar off he heard the squawking of caribou calves.他听到远处有一群小驯鹿尖叫的声音。
• The Eskimos played soccer on ice and used balls filled with caribou hair and grass.爱斯基摩人在冰上踢球，他们用的是驯鹿的毛发和草填充成的球。

3 tundra   

n.苔原，冻土地带

参考例句：

• The arctic tundra is at the top of the world around the North Pole.北极冻原是指北极点周边的地区，是世界最高的地方。
• There is a large amount of methane gas under the Siberian tundra.西伯利亚的冻土地带之下有大量的甲烷气体。

4 shrug   

v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等)

参考例句：

• With a shrug,he went out of the room.他耸一下肩，走出了房间。
• I admire the way she is able to shrug off unfair criticism.我很佩服她能对错误的批评意见不予理会。

5 throttled   

v.扼杀( throttle的过去式和过去分词 )；勒死；使窒息；压制

参考例句：

• He throttled the guard with his bare hands. 他徒手掐死了卫兵。
• The pilot got very low before he throttled back. 飞行员减速之前下降得很低。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 streak   

n.条理，斑纹，倾向，少许，痕迹；v.加条纹，变成条纹，奔驰，快速移动

参考例句：

• The Indians used to streak their faces with paint.印第安人过去常用颜料在脸上涂条纹。
• Why did you streak the tree?你为什么在树上刻条纹？

7 whine   

v.哀号，号哭；n.哀鸣

参考例句：

• You are getting paid to think,not to whine.支付给你工资是让你思考而不是哀怨的。
• The bullet hit a rock and rocketed with a sharp whine.子弹打在一块岩石上，一声尖厉的呼啸，跳飞开去。

8 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

9 hymns   

n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌( hymn的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• At first, they played the hymns and marches familiar to them. 起初他们只吹奏自己熟悉的赞美诗和进行曲。 来自英汉非文学 - 百科语料821
• I like singing hymns. 我喜欢唱圣歌。 来自辞典例句